February 2025
In this edition…
What does it mean to have a strong support system—people who stand in your corner, cheering you on and lifting you up during life’s toughest moments?
Just like a boxer relies on a team to strategize, encourage, and care for them between rounds, we all need trusted individuals who help us push forward, celebrate our victories, and remind us that we are never alone in the fight.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once challenged us to consider: “What kind of extremists will we be? Will we be extremists for hate or for love?”
At the "I Have A Dream" Foundation of Boulder County, we choose to be extremists for love—steadfastly supporting the Scholars with whom we partner in programming, the families, our staff, volunteers and donors. We want each of them to know that, no matter the challenge, we are in their corner, ready to lift them up and champion their success.
Our one clear message to our Scholars and their families at this moment is:
“We are in your corner!”
Every afternoon, our afterschool programs open their doors to provide safe, welcoming spaces where young people can learn, grow, and feel supported—no matter what challenges they face.
Right now, people throughout our communities live with heightened uncertainty due to shifting policies. Uncertainty generated by unpredictable actions affects our community members regardless of how they look, their identities, lived experiences, or legal status. This uncertainty has ripple effects that wash over our Scholars and their families.
The uncertainty doesn’t stop at their doorstep—it flows into their schools, their communities, and their school days. Regardless of a student’s individual situation, they know someone who is worried. And worry distracts.
But, when they walk into our programs, they find stability and assurance. They know they belong. They know they matter. And they know we are in their corner.
Beyond providing an additional space of stability, we are committed to helping students maximize their educational opportunities. We continue to strengthen our academic support, social-emotional learning, and family engagement—ensuring that no matter the barriers, they have the tools to succeed.
We strive to remind our families that we continue to protect their privacy and rights just as we always have. We are following best practices in working with schools and are providing training for staff and volunteers to interact wisely and appropriately with law enforcement, should it ever be necessary.
How to Stand in Their Corner
As we continue this vital work, we face our own challenges. Nonprofit and education funding is becoming increasingly uncertain, especially for organizations like ours that focus on equity in underserved communities.
Know that while funding may fluctuate, our commitment to our students never will.
That’s where you can make a profound difference!
Step Into Their Corner with Us
Here are two very practical ways you can step into our Scholars’ corner with us right now:
- By becoming a monthly donor, you can lead the way by creating the stability our students need to thrive. Your consistent support allows us to focus on what matters most: being there for our students, every single day.
- ReFUND Colorado is an initiative that makes it easy to donate part or all of a Colorado State Income Tax refund directly to IHDF as a qualified nonprofit organization. Click here for more, or see the brief note below.
Thank you for being part of this community. With you in their corner, our students and families will always know they are not alone!
Perla Delgado, Ph.D.
CEO/Executive Director
An Interview with Lead Senior Director Travis Herbert
Many of our students, their families, and others within their communities have experienced heightened levels of tension and distraction in recent weeks due to changes in policies. To offer a window into how IHDF is responding to these challenges, we thought we’d check in with Travis Herbert, who oversees several key areas including our high school program staff.
In this candid conversation, Travis shares how our organization is creating safe spaces where students can process their emotions and concerns during uncertain times. He also reveals a powerful insight into why the learning environment matters more than ever – not just for our students, but for our staff as well.
Current Challenges and Student Concerns
Let's start with what you've heard about the current needs. What are our students concerned about? And what are we doing in response?
Travis: What we're hearing from students - and what I'm hearing from the program managers that I oversee - is that students have altered their participation in our program. By altered, I mean they're choosing not to attend as frequently, usually at the direction of a parent, and it's related to fear of encountering law enforcement or ICE agents during their travel to and from programs.
I've heard from a program director about a student who talks a lot during their weekly check-ins. The student consistently brings up fear, concern, and anxiety around immigration. That's impacting how they're showing up to school or to our program.
There's anxiety and fear in multiple contexts. As a whole, our staff are wondering how to best support families and students. They're concerned about questions like: What do we do if we're on a field trip and we get pulled over? What if we encounter ICE in public or on a field trip to the Denver Museum? How would we respond?
The Importance of the Learning Environment
Environment matters. The environment we create in our afterschool and summer programs is part of our “secret sauce”–it’s why students keep showing up year after year.
They feel like they belong, they feel safe, they feel heard, they don't feel like they're going to be judged for wherever they're at or their actions. They know that we're going to meet them where they're at and try to work with them to figure out the best solution forward.
Educational research also shows environment matters for teachers and students to be able to learn. We know from research on trauma that if people, especially youth, are experiencing stress in their life outside of school, that adds to the stresses of attending school and can have a negative impact on their ability to learn. A sense of security and stability impacts our ability to learn as humans.
I think what we're trying to do at “I Have a Dream” is to maintain that environment where students report (1) they have an adult they can trust here, (2) they have adults outside of “I Have a Dream” they can trust, and (3) they feel like they belong when they come to our program.
So we're checking in with students as regularly as we can to understand what stressors they are feeling and how we can possibly be of support.
Student Support and Check-ins
Is that support mainly conversational and relational, or are there other intentional ways we approach that social-emotionally?
Travis: Foundationally and structurally, one-on-one check-ins are an avenue to understand what's going on in a person's life. We take a holistic approach. We're an educational nonprofit - we ask them questions about how school's going, how their social life is going, about their goals and aspirations, and how their family life is going. Those questions and answers are different at different developmental ages, and we understand and attend to that.
In high school, we ask questions like, "What emotions came up for you this week?" to encourage people to be aware of their emotional state, to name it and understand it, and understand how that impacts their behavior and decision making about their actions.. One-on-one check-ins are really valuable, and what we're finding is that [now] students want to check in more. We're asking directly, "Hey, do you have time to check in? Would you like to check in?" And many are saying yes. So we've increased the frequency of check-ins.
It's about creating the environment where this is what we do. Our social work intern program has helped our capacity to increase the frequency of check-ins - they come in with the expertise on the social-emotional side to be able to engage in those conversations.
Supporting Staff
How is IHDF supporting our staff in the midst of all this?
Travis: Someone I respect once said the greatest gift we give to the world as an organization is our staff. The reason they're here is they're connected to our mission - they really value the work we do. This work is challenging all the time. It asks staff to engage in the work with all parts of themselves, and they experience stressors as well.
We really want to walk our talk as an organization and model the same approaches that we practice and train staff to use when interacting with youth and families. We want to be able to meet our staff where they're at and understand what's going on in their lives and how we can support them if they're experiencing stressors that are impacting their professional life.
We do that through check-ins and having staff meetings where we talk about what's going on in the world and how they're feeling impacted. We talk about organizational support that we can put into place including increased collaboration and spaces where staff can connect with each other to use the resources within our staff community to provide support to one another, to have each other’s backs within our work. We have an employee assistance program through our benefits, but we also have a private practice therapist who's been connected with us for years, who knows our organization, and we're able to offer a number of free therapy sessions for staff to be able to process what's going on related to work. Staff have found that really effective and helpful.
Making a Difference
If someone were to ask how we're making a difference right now, what would you say? How would you sum up why our work is particularly important right now?
Travis: I think our work is extremely important, no matter the climate and landscape that we find ourselves in, because it is person-centered and strength-based. We are intentional about the approaches we choose to use with young people and ensure it aligns with what youth say they need and want from trusted adults and the IHDF program. Our work and programs are informed by research. We know that when youth are engaged in positive, high quality programs that it leads to positive outcomes and youth thriving. The positive, healthy experiences serve as a buffer against youth engaging in risky behaviors. They cultivate hope.
Especially when stressors increase - and stressors can increase for a variety of reasons - but when stressors increase, especially ones that create more uncertainty and chaos and are related to survival and a sense of security and safety, it becomes increasingly important to have places where you feel safe and where you feel like you belong. That's what we do every day.
For youth to be able to come five days a week after school is over, for two hours a day - we're talking upwards of five to eight hours a week - to have a place where they feel like they belong, where they feel like they can talk about the things going on in their lives, where they feel like they can get support and help - that's a big deal. It can have a real positive impact.
The Importance of the Learning Environment
Environment matters. The environment we create in our afterschool and summer programs is part of our “secret sauce”–it’s why students keep showing up year after year.
They feel like they belong, they feel safe, they feel heard, they don't feel like they're going to be judged for wherever they're at or their actions. They know that we're going to meet them where they're at and try to work with them to figure out the best solution forward.
Educational research also shows environment matters for teachers and students to be able to learn. We know from research on trauma that if people, especially youth, are experiencing stress in their life outside of school, that adds to the stresses of attending school and can have a negative impact on their ability to learn. A sense of security and stability impacts our ability to learn as humans.
I think what we're trying to do at “I Have a Dream” is to maintain that environment where students report (1) they have an adult they can trust here, (2) they have adults outside of “I Have a Dream” they can trust, and (3) they feel like they belong when they come to our program.
So we're checking in with students as regularly as we can to understand what stressors they are feeling and how we can possibly be of support.
Student Support and Check-ins
Is that support mainly conversational and relational, or are there other intentional ways we approach that social-emotionally?
Travis: Foundationally and structurally, one-on-one check-ins are an avenue to understand what's going on in a person's life. We take a holistic approach. We're an educational nonprofit - we ask them questions about how school's going, how their social life is going, about their goals and aspirations, and how their family life is going. Those questions and answers are different at different developmental ages, and we understand and attend to that.
In high school, we ask questions like, "What emotions came up for you this week?" to encourage people to be aware of their emotional state, to name it and understand it, and understand how that impacts their behavior and decision making about their actions.. One-on-one check-ins are really valuable, and what we're finding is that [now] students want to check in more. We're asking directly, "Hey, do you have time to check in? Would you like to check in?" And many are saying yes. So we've increased the frequency of check-ins.
It's about creating the environment where this is what we do. Our social work intern program has helped our capacity to increase the frequency of check-ins - they come in with the expertise on the social-emotional side to be able to engage in those conversations.
Supporting Staff
How is IHDF supporting our staff in the midst of all this?
Travis: Someone I respect once said the greatest gift we give to the world as an organization is our staff. The reason they're here is they're connected to our mission - they really value the work we do. This work is challenging all the time. It asks staff to engage in the work with all parts of themselves, and they experience stressors as well.
We really want to walk our talk as an organization and model the same approaches that we practice and train staff to use when interacting with youth and families. We want to be able to meet our staff where they're at and understand what's going on in their lives and how we can support them if they're experiencing stressors that are impacting their professional life.
We do that through check-ins and having staff meetings where we talk about what's going on in the world and how they're feeling impacted. We talk about organizational support that we can put into place including increased collaboration and spaces where staff can connect with each other to use the resources within our staff community to provide support to one another, to have each other’s backs within our work. We have an employee assistance program through our benefits, but we also have a private practice therapist who's been connected with us for years, who knows our organization, and we're able to offer a number of free therapy sessions for staff to be able to process what's going on related to work. Staff have found that really effective and helpful.
Making a Difference
If someone were to ask how we're making a difference right now, what would you say? How would you sum up why our work is particularly important right now?
Travis: I think our work is extremely important, no matter the climate and landscape that we find ourselves in, because it is person-centered and strength-based. We are intentional about the approaches we choose to use with young people and ensure it aligns with what youth say they need and want from trusted adults and the IHDF program. Our work and programs are informed by research. We know that when youth are engaged in positive, high quality programs that it leads to positive outcomes and youth thriving. The positive, healthy experiences serve as a buffer against youth engaging in risky behaviors. They cultivate hope.
Especially when stressors increase - and stressors can increase for a variety of reasons - but when stressors increase, especially ones that create more uncertainty and chaos and are related to survival and a sense of security and safety, it becomes increasingly important to have places where you feel safe and where you feel like you belong. That's what we do every day.
For youth to be able to come five days a week after school is over, for two hours a day - we're talking upwards of five to eight hours a week - to have a place where they feel like they belong, where they feel like they can talk about the things going on in their lives, where they feel like they can get support and help - that's a big deal. It can have a real positive impact.
Are you expecting a Colorado tax refund this year?
You can easily direct it to support our work!
Donate a portion or all of your Colorado state income tax refund to support the “I Have A Dream” Foundation of Boulder County.
Find out how to use Donate to a Colorado Nonprofit Fund on your tax form – no extra steps required!
Support us and make a real difference with just a few clicks.